The Earth is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old, but what does that mean? To students this can be difficult to put in perspective. How does this compare to their own lifetime? TED-Ed puts it all in perspective in the following video:
Are you a fan of TED Talks? TED-Ed has put together an interactive periodic table comprised of their videos; this can be seen here. This could be a great resource for your students. Not only does TED-Ed talk about the properties of multiple elements, they also run experiments in several of their videos. Check it out!
In our most recent post, the ME team used a 3D printer for one of their parts. What is 3D printing? There are different ways to print three dimensional objects, which are detailed in this link. Our ME team used the fused deposition process for their part which can be seen below. These printers are not only used for small parts and projects, they are also used to make everything from medical supplies to an entire car (see below). Companies like Protolabs and Solid Concepts specialize in making molds and parts. These links will help your students understand the things mentioned in the previous ME video. For the future, the hope is that 3D printers will make manufacturing of tools and products faster without compromising on strength and durability. Check it out!
The ME team is at it again. This time they hit some roadblocks while making their three modules. The team was able to persevere and their project is nearly complete. Check out the progress and process:
Amazing right? But how does it work? In a basic sense, the magnetized putty is trying to evenly distribute itself around the magnet. This article explains it all. You may want to share this with your students!
That’s right, Galileo would have been 451 years old today. To celebrate his birthday we thought it would be great to share this article proving his theory true; a heavy item and a light item would reach the ground at the same time in a vacuum. In the video below, they travel to NASA’s space power facility in Cleveland, Ohio to the worlds largest vacuum chamber to prove his point.
The team has expanded upon their awesome project. This week they expanded on their crank. Here is what they had to say about it:
Building on our previous design, we machined an acrylic sheet into an acrylic disc to mount on the generator for easier use (video 1). We then kept building the power generation module so that we could test our other equipment better (photo 1). We disassembled part of the TV to try and test it with our generator, but weren’t generating enough power or had some other issue (photo 2). We managed to cut all of our acrylic for the hydro power module and we tested flame polishing on one of the pieces (photo 3, 4 and video 2). The video game has been further tested and we can successfully use other buttons to play the game! (Although Pac-Man is still really hard) (photo 5). Finally, we made some welding modifications to the base of the generator to make it simpler and more sturdy (video 3). Next, we’ll be building the structures of the modules and finally have something to really show off!
This week the ME team was working on a power generator for their project which included a hand crank system. The team describes their process below:
We started by designing a simple hand-crank and trying to power a 25 watt light bulb with it [photo 1]. We were not generating enough power to light the bulb, so the light bulb just glowed (it didn’t light up fully). We determined that we need to spin the generator faster to get more power, so we went about modifying out crank to include a gear ratio. Adding a gear ratio means that spinning the crank handle one revolution will rotate the generator hub more than one revolution (2.4 revolutions, in this case). The next few photos show our group hard-at-work in the machine shop at OSU: Peter uses the band-saw to cut steel components [photo 2], Sam uses the sand-blaster to clean and texture parts [photo 3], and Ryan welds a shaft onto a sprocket [photo 4]. The new, modified hand crank is complete [photo 5], and our test with a voltmeter is successful [photo 6]! The new design generates about 21 volts, which is a significant improvement over the 12 volts we were able to achieve prior to the modifications. Next, we’ll be conducting more tests and modifications—after all, engineering is an iterative process!
